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You might make a great contributor to our college textbook blog network.

The college textbook blog network has two goals for adding guest bloggers: To have you produce outstanding and useful content that reaches a broad expanse of college students. To provide multiple viewpoints on the subject of college textbooks.

We only want and will only syndicate quality insights created by writers who stand behind their work.

1. Choose your topic. Select an area of expertise and write an article relating to one of the following topics:

a. How to save money on textbooks.

b. Information on renting textbooks or digital textbooks.

c. Textbook News.

d. Technology around textbooks.

e. Your opinion concerning textbooks.

f. Textbooks after the course ends.

3. Write your Article. Composeyour article for the college student that could use help with textbooks! All articles must be original work created by the submitter and can be previously published. The article and about box may contain one link each.

a. Choose a narrow focus. We are more likely to accept articles that share in-depth information on a narrow topic, as opposed to shallow tips on a broad topic.

b. Make it fresh and new. Avoid redundant tips and information we’ve all heard before. Tell the reader something they didn’t know so that they are likely to ‘share this with a friend!’

c. Write concise paragraphs. Use bullets and avoid lengthy paragraphs. The goal is for a reader to be able to get an overall feel for your entire article in about 5-10 seconds. Keep articles between 200-800 words in length. Articles with excessive grammatical, spelling and/or punctuation errors will not be accepted.

d. Infuse your article with wit and personality. It is OK to be corny, be relatable, make it personal. Write in the “I” form. Include a catchy introduction and loads of creativity to set you apart.

4. Submit the article. Email your article to bjones@computerpages.net where it will be considered for publication. We prefer that you simply paste your article into the body of your email rather than send an attachment. You will receive a response within 7 days. Include your first name, and city/state so we can include it at the bottom of your post!

5. Self Promote. Your article will be promoted on our Facebook and Twitter posts but we encourage self promotion. We will send you the URL of your guest post so you can promote it to your Twitter and Facebook followers. This cross promotion will dramatically improve your articles social reach.

There’s something malign about paying 3 figures for a hunk of dead trees, only to see its price plunge seventy percent in a case of weeks. College kids selling textbooks know the sensation well. Turning in books to the campus book shop is a demonstration of giving up assets for nickels on the buck. “There’s a general disgust,” asserts Alan Martin, Chief Executive Officer of CampusBookRentals, a corporation that leases out textbooks to students.

“It’s not only that they cost so much, but they get so very little back in return.” Naturally, there are options. Amazon, eBay and other online channels offer decent prospects for scraping back face value but there’s risk if the books don’t sell. And since online customers expect to buy used titles at a steep discount, scholars still leave money on the table. One proved way to squish value and even a pleasant profit out of textbooks : rent them. Firms like CampusBookRentals and Chegg have built multimillion-dollar enterprises on the model.

Lease out a $120 book for $40 4 times, say, then sell it for $30.

Multiply that eventuality several thousand times and the mathematics adds up pleasantly. CampusBookRentals now wants to insert the scholar into that equation. With a programme called Rentback, the Utah-based company inspires scholars to send in their used textbooks, which CBR then leases out per the typical process. Scholars , who continue to officially own the books though out collect the results of each rental minus a $19 exchange charge that covers shipping, selling, logistics and a little profit for the company. For a textbook like Physics, for instance, released by Wiley & Boys , CBR is expecting to hire the book for $54 at first, and for smaller quantities 3 further times. Whether or not the price declines by $5 for each successive rental, scholars sending in the title still stand to make $110 during the course of 2 years. At any time between rentals they can take the book back and sell it on their lonesome if they believe the economics make little sense. A new version of the same title sells for $172 on Amazon. The tradeoff is easy : CBR gets an inexpensive stock of textbooks while promoting goodwill among its consumers. Martin admits the programme isn’t engineered to serve as an addition cash stream, but to deepen shopper faithfulness and fortify the organization’s brand cachet.

To avoid getting stuck with bad inventory, the company only accepts books that have proved demand. Don’t send in this title as an example. Though best commonly known as a customer brand, CBR is increasingly targeted on introducing its technology into school bookstores. The company powers the textbook renting services of two hundred and fifty campus bookstores through white-label partnerships, running touchscreen kiosks, iPhone programs and inventory management software. “Those stores will be the number one partners and drivers of Rentback,” Martin explains. Every one publicizes the money making chance to its student body. Martin asserts that 1.2 million scholars attend universities with a CBR-partnered bookstore. A mirrored image of its shifting focus, CBR is differentiating its purchaser business from bookstore efforts, branding the second as Path .

One reason for the raised attention on bookstores : the digital threat. Published textbooks still rule today’s landscape, but what about 10 years from now? “We need to take the industry endpoints,” Martin strains.

“That’s going to give us the chance to be the main digital distributors as well.” Though still made to look tiny by Chegg’s reported $200 million in 2011 sales, CBR has grown at a quick clip since Martin set up the company with $250,000 in bank card debts in 2007. The company posted sales of $28 million last year, treble its 2010 take of $9 million. Martin is expecting to lease out 1,000,000 books in 2013 and top 2012 cash by twenty p.c. while refining the corporation’s book shop technology.

Unlike Chegg, CBR has been rewarding since 2009. Martin reveals that CBR also partners with “frenemies” like Amazon and eBay to meet order for their book rental programs. “Publishers,” from the other standpoint, “are always going to intend we were nonexistent.”.